Wednesday, February 29, 2012

I was given this by the most generous Elaine to try a few weeks ago and I have been testing it with all my foundations to see how it would work with them.

It comes with a tapered nozzle to squeeze out the base.

It comes out white and when blended becomes almost transparent. It does leave a slightly whitish cast when I blend it over my face. It does not dry down to a total matt instead it gives a slight glowy finish. I tried it with my Lancome Teint Miracle foundation. It helps my foundation stay put throughout the day but it does leave my face slightly oily by the end of the day.

On other foundations such as Giorgio Armani's Lasting Silk and MUFE HD foundation I felt that the primer did well. But under my Burberry Luminous Fluid foundation and my sample of Shiseido's Perfect Refining foundation, it did not perform that well. My foundation seem to sit on my face and it looked oily after two hours. I have not had such issues with my Giorgio Armani Fluid Master Primer which works very well with all my foundations.

I do love how convenient Kate Make Up Base is. Instead of putting on my Chanel sunblock and then a primer, it combines both into one.

I would not reccomend this for oily skins and also not for darker skin tones because the whitish cast may look more obvious. I'm not sure how much it costs but being a Japanese drug store brand, it should not be that expensive. (Edited to add: Dear Elaine has informed me that Kate Make Up Base costs SGD $20.50.)

Monday, February 27, 2012

I have been hearing good things about Inglot eye shadows so I decided to haul some when Luna went to the US for her annual trip. The difficult was choosing among the huge range of colours and finishes. I had to rely on on-line swatches and the most useful was Temptalia's blog. I knew I wanted some neutrals, some mattes for contouring and I couldn't resist some of the more colourful shades.

I decided to get a 20 pan eye shadow palette but unfortunately they were not in stock. So I got two 10 pan palettes instead.

The palettes are quite heavy and thicker than the MAC palettes that I own. They are not the best for travel. The cover can be lifted off totally. The magnetic strength in these palettes are very strong. These palettes go for USD $14 each. The 20 pan palette goes for USD $20.

The pans come in these little black boxes. Each pan costs USD $5 and the rainbow pans cost USD$7. Not bad huh for 2.7g of product? The pan comes encased in a plastic thingy to keep it safe, I had to peel of the plastic to get to my goody.

On to the colours. First up the neutrals.

Rainbow Eye Shadow 101R

Rainbow Eye Shadow 101R on bare lids

Rainbow Eye Shadow 112R

Eye Shadow Matte 390

Eye Shadow Matte 327

Now for the colours.

Eye Shadow Matte 361

Eye Shadow AMC Shine 15

Left to right: 390, 327, 361 and 15

Eye Shadow Pearl 412

Eye Shadow Pearl 414

Eye Shadow Pearl 439

Eye Shadow Matte 377

Eye Shadow Pearl 446

Eye Shadow Pearl 428

Here are some quick looks I came out with.

15 and 327 on top of Too Faced Shadow Insurance

439 and 377 on my bare lids

Completed smoky purple look

412 and 414

Urban Decay Sin and 428

Basically there are 5 types of finishes. I bought three kinds, the mattes, the pearls and the shines. There are also the double shines called DS and the AMC, I have absolutely no idea what are those.

All the above swatches were made without any base underneath. I am very impressed with their quality. I love the mattes especially. They are soft and pigmented and blend very well. They last very well too. They stay true to colour and lasts.

I decided to arrange my eye colours like this, one for neutrals/warms and another for colour. I have been warned that they are tough to take out once you have placed them in their slots. That is because of the strong magnets in the palette. I did watch a you tube video which suggests the best way to take out the pans without damaging them is by using another strong magnet preferably a sheet magnet and a bar magnet to attract the pans out from their slots. I'm not intending to move my pans around any time soon, but if I do I'll leave an update right at the end of this post.

If you are just starting out with make up and want to have as many colours as possible, Inglot eye shadows will do the job and not break your bank. It is unfortunate that they are not in Singapore because I find that it is easier to see them for yourself to decide the colours you want. There are on line swatches available but I have not found a very comprehensive one except for Temptalia's who has featured quite a few of their colours. The rest are all over the net. You can get them in Malaysia, KL, Sunway Pyramid and Penang, Queensbay Mall and Australia too. An eye shadow pan in Malaysia cost RM 28 that works out to be about SGD$11.70. If you buy from the US it will only cost you SGD $6.30. But you will have to deal with shipping.

I find the rainbow pans a really good deal especially the neutrals.

I will want to get more in the future but I would like to see them for myself.